The millionaire and the mummies
Subtitle: Theodore Davis's Gilded Age in the Valley of the Kings
By: John M. Adams
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 363
ISBN-13: 9781250026699
Subjects: Egyptologists; Archaeologists; Excavations (Archaeology); Tombs; Antiquities; Biography
Description: At the start of the twentieth century, Theodore Davis was the most famous archaeologist in the world; his career turned tomb-robbing and treasure-hunting into a science. Using six of Davis's most important discoveries-- from the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut's sarcophagus to the exquisite shabti statuettes looted from the Egyptian Museum not too long ago-- Adams chronicles the dizzying rise of a poor country preacher's son who, through corruption and fraud, amassed tremendous wealth in Gilded Age New York and then atoned for his ruthless career by inventing new standards for systematic excavation.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages [323]-345) and index.
Table of contents: title: Thuyu's golden coffin; title: Rekhmire's bronze bowl; title: Hatshepsut's quartzite sarcophagus; title: Kiya's alabaster jar; title: Tawosret's golden earrings; title: Yuya's vanished shabtis.